Gender-Based Approach to Climate Change Adaptation: A advocacy paper from Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
To address impacts on Lombok and minimise future effects of climate change, it is critical that action is taken now to adapt and build resilience, particularly for vulnerable groups such as women and girls who face additional barriers to climate change adaptation. Considering the increasingly tangible impacts of climate change, a comprehensive study was conducted by Islamic Relief alongside IPB University to assess the extent to which women and girls are vulnerable to climate change disasters, and the factors which hinder their adaptation, on the island of Lombok. This results from this study will aim to increase the capacity of communities capable of adaptating to climate change; and also improve the mainstreaming of gender issues in development planning on a local, national and global scale.
Based on the main findings of this research paper, Islamic Relief presents the following recommendations:
For the international community:
- Acknowledge that the impacts of climate change are not gender-neutral and address this through affirmative ways of working with women’s groups.
- Build agreement or consensus among policymakers and experts to identify, analyse, and implement gender mainstreaming opportunities.
For the Government of Indonesia:
- Develop or formulate integrated derivative regulation of climate adaptation-related national policies with concern for implementing gender-responsive actions on prioritised sectors which are backed by both vertical and horizontal coordination as well as data sharing mechanisms among ministries/institutions.
- Establish fiscal transfer incentives for sub-national governments that have planned and implemented gender-responsive climate change adaptation or climate-resilient development policies